Prime Suspect - Gakuen Alice

Prime Suspect

If you're wondering if there's anything in the preschool that Natsume Hyuuga enjoys, then we can count them with only the use of one hand.

It should be reading manga with his best friend, his wealthy set of Crayola crayons—and Mik—SLEEPING.

The list ends there.

For him, life can get boring and school can be worthless without the four things that he likes.

He can usually achieve those in just a small glare he sends to his nosy classmates or an incomprehensible grunt he produces at certain times. But lately, the class has been anxious on some petty issue circling their classroom—THEFT!

It has been a week since the first incident of larceny in their school.

He heard about this after they disturbed his habitual hour of sleep during Jinno's Math Class.

Missing pens, erasers, crayons, clay molds, rubber balls, snack boxes and even a dirty Physical Exercise uniform were reported.

This shouldn't really be a big deal for him since the burglar didn't touch any of his mangas nor stole any of his crayons but apparently, he was forced to take action because the entire ruckus was depriving him one of the rare things that he liked—Saku—SLEEPING.

He was playing with the pencil he held in his hands as he continued thinking deeply.

It was 'Nap Time'. Their class adviser, Narumi, announced it several minutes ago.

He frowned as his eyes swept through the classroom, observing his classmates as he did so.

He could have been sleeping right now. He could have been reading his manga together with his best friend, Ruka Nogi, in the comforts of the quiet ambiance of 'their corner' at the back of the room.

But all these weren't possible anymore. Just because of some vicious felon who was out on the loose.

His ruby eyes looked cleverly at his notebook. He wouldn't tolerate these insolent acts. He was going to solve this mystery.

He would unmask this prime suspect!

Suspect Number 1: Imai, Hotaru.

It wasn't because of jealousy or any inner hate for this peculiar classmate of his that he was considering her a suspect.

Hotaru Imai was easily next to him in the honor roll and was thus highly capable of performing clean crimes.

It didn't help that she was also a very cold and an aloof person who rarely showed her emotions which was usually just when her self-proclaimed best friend—Mikan Sakura—was around.

This petite girl looked frail from the outside but Natsume was very sure that within her was a monstrous capability of executing smart transgressions.

After all, she had always been so fond of annoying Ruka by humiliating him for some incomprehensible reason which Ruka comfortably labels as 'sadistic blackmailing'.

Plus, she was always in love with food. He could even recall seeing her munching on Ruka's Crab-flavored cookies.

The point here was that one of the missing things was Anna Umenomiya's snack box which contained Crab Strips. Everyone in the preschool knew how good Umenomiya's snacks were.

He couldn't be wrong. Hotaru Imai loved crabs and that could be a big factor to solve this crime.

Almost certain about his deduction, he glanced on the list of missing objects and glowered in annoyance when he realized something.